Olympus E-P1 'digital Pen' official
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well, I think the colours on it look great, I'd like to make my D300 do similar
great news on the camera though, hope it works well for you on your trip, we look forward to hearing all about it.
dave
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Points percy at the pedestal
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Thats two of us Capt, but I think flash has seen another model on the way with a VF.
well, I think the colours on it look great, I'd like to make my D300 do similar
Go to the Oly forums at dpreview and you will find lots of posts about 'oly colour'. They claim that oly processing gives a certain look esp with blues.
I agree. But digital could also do so much better than just pretend to be film.
With some thought going into the design we could get a camera that is the 'rangefinder' (or SLR) for the 21st century, rather than some throwback to a design we used to use.
So it is rather ironically (given that Olympus cite a 40 year old design as inspiration for this new one) I hope that cameras like this are where manufacturers start considering what digital cameras could be.
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I hope so too. I think cameras like this Oly, and also the G1 and GH1 from Panasonic, and the new system promised by Samsung for later this year, are very clear indicators for the future. This is surely the shape of things to come, for all of us. It is a new kind of camera.
This Olympus looks a bit like an old design, but actually it is not at all. It's fundamentally new. The original Pen F didn't have an LCD for viewing obviously, so it differs from film SLRs and old rangefinder cameras there, but it has interchangeable lenses and a bigger sensor, unlike regular compacts.
I think technology has now reached the point where we don't need either rangefinder or reflex viewing, and that releases a lot of new design options and benefits. Getting rid of the mirror and prism is hugely liberating, and it can't be long before the mechanical shutter is replaced by sensor switching.
A separate viewfinder will be needed for specialist use, but this will just be a video feed off the sensor to a miniature hi-res LCD. Sounds perfect to me.
It's all got a way to go yet, but I think the signs are clear and I rather like the look of this new direction. I think it is interesting that it is only manufacturers without any major vested interest in conventional cameras and systems are promoting this. And now Olympus also feel they have nothing to lose.
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I'm hoping this will be as big as it deserves as i'm looking for a good excuse to buy one
I really enjoy using my DSLR and all that it brings, but it's a pain in the backside carrying all the stuff around and wish i could have the same quality (near as makes no difference) in a smaller lighter package.
Fingers crossed that it works out
I really enjoy using my DSLR and all that it brings, but it's a pain in the backside carrying all the stuff around and wish i could have the same quality (near as makes no difference) in a smaller lighter package.
Fingers crossed that it works out
Well, all camera manufacturers are in business principally to make money - not cameras. So it is far easier for them to regurgitate the 'old' stuff with added bells and whistles rather than make anything new. While consumers continue to lap up the 'old' stuff they have no pressing need to do anything different.
Indeed to be 'first' is expensive and if you are successful others will be copying you and selling cheaper in months.
It is likely to be the more 'independent' manus who are willing to take the risk as they have less to lose, less of a legacy base of users and a desire to take some market share from 'the big two' in the first place.
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Yes, very true. And I'm sure that Canon certainly has prototype cameras like this ready to roll when the time is right. You might almost think that their EF-S lens system was designed with just such a prospect in mind. The whole concept also has the Sony brand written all over it if you ask me.
It's just a question of timing I think. Canon has always been very canny at this kind of thing; rarely first with radically new stuff, but leading the market in a very short space of time. I'm just grateful that we have a competitive market that promotes these things. As you quite rightly say, the vested interest is to make money, and if the established brands can maintain the status quo with safe and conventional technology, then they will.
Canon at least is big enough to support both old and new technologies to make as much money as possible, for as long as possible. Olympus must be hoping they get a bit of a free run for a while, and I also think it is telling that they are not only talking about new cameras to add to a system that is quite extensive even at launch (much more than just a new camera) they have got the E-P1 to market in record time - almost desperately fast. It will be interesting
I think this is why they are tagging it as the 'Pen' - it gives older Olympus users a reason to have the new one that Canon can't do. They will have to find their own particular USP. The fitting of older lenses is no bad thing either - as I'm sure that could hook a few sales.
It's sure that if the Oly is a sucess (and I can't see why it won't be) Canon and Nikon will be along with some version of a digital 'rangfinders' in the future - but I'd like Cosina to have a go with a Voigtlander digital. They already have a range of 12mm - 90mm interchangeable lenses. If it can't be full frame - with an APS sensor they have an 18mm - 135mm range and with a Four Thirds sensor and there would be @24mm - 180mm. Both those work..... Imagine a Bessa T with a 3" LCD.....
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LOL Yes. I love this kind of ruminating
Panasonic must be shaking their heads at all the attention Olympus is getting, with an arguably inferior product to theirs (AF isn't so good, apparently) just because they've given it some heritage cred with an old name an retro styling. The price doesn't appear to be putting too many people off either. The new camera is actually not remotely like the Pen F, which got a lot of attention in its day but actually only very few sales to a cult audience of half-frame nutters ( ) I know it well enough, but I never owned one, never wanted one, and yet here I am now wanting a this new Olympus for strange motives I don't quite understand 
Olympus have always been very good at this, especially in the UK where they have held market leadership in a lot of sectors against worldwide trends. Take a not so revolutionary concept, make it smaller and chic, get personalities to endorse it and the job's a good un. OM1, OM2, the original clam-shell Miu, etc etc. Look what David Bailey did for the Olympus Trip! That camera was a technical dinosaur, and so too was Bailey very much past his famous peak - yet they both shot back to fame on the back of a TV campaign. And Bailey even married Marie Helvin, which has got to be a result.
It all says to me that cameras and picture taking are not just about photographs at all. It always helps if there is some technical justification for our whims and extravagant lustings, but sometimes we just want stuff because it's nice to own and use. (I've just bought an L zoom. Of course it's better... Hmmm)
Which leads me to thinking that the Cosina brand hasn't got a hope, and they'll have to try very hard indeed to breathe any real life into Voigtlander. Leica, on the other hand; is this the life line they need? And set against the disaster that is the M8, what could they and Panasonic do with a really premium brand version of this new Olympus concept? Maybe they've got a hint of it with the success of the Lumix LX3 and Leica D-Lux 4. I'm wanting one already
Panasonic must be shaking their heads at all the attention Olympus is getting, with an arguably inferior product to theirs (AF isn't so good, apparently) just because they've given it some heritage cred with an old name an retro styling. The price doesn't appear to be putting too many people off either. The new camera is actually not remotely like the Pen F, which got a lot of attention in its day but actually only very few sales to a cult audience of half-frame nutters (
) I know it well enough, but I never owned one, never wanted one, and yet here I am now wanting a this new Olympus for strange motives I don't quite understand Olympus have always been very good at this, especially in the UK where they have held market leadership in a lot of sectors against worldwide trends. Take a not so revolutionary concept, make it smaller and chic, get personalities to endorse it and the job's a good un. OM1, OM2, the original clam-shell Miu, etc etc. Look what David Bailey did for the Olympus Trip! That camera was a technical dinosaur, and so too was Bailey very much past his famous peak - yet they both shot back to fame on the back of a TV campaign. And Bailey even married Marie Helvin, which has got to be a result.
It all says to me that cameras and picture taking are not just about photographs at all. It always helps if there is some technical justification for our whims and extravagant lustings, but sometimes we just want stuff because it's nice to own and use. (I've just bought an L zoom. Of course it's better... Hmmm)
Which leads me to thinking that the Cosina brand hasn't got a hope, and they'll have to try very hard indeed to breathe any real life into Voigtlander. Leica, on the other hand; is this the life line they need? And set against the disaster that is the M8, what could they and Panasonic do with a really premium brand version of this new Olympus concept? Maybe they've got a hint of it with the success of the Lumix LX3 and Leica D-Lux 4. I'm wanting one already
photon
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I think if kit is good to handle and works well and so on, it will encourage taking pictures - but there is nothing worse (for me) than gear heads lusting over some esoteric piece of kit that they will rarely use because it is simply unnecessary/expensive/badly designed/pointless (in reality, for them).
Which is why I (pretty much) 'gave up' on SLR's before digital. To much stuff to lug about. To heavy. Too encumbered. I've been using small compact film cameras for ages and am still happy enough with an 8 year old Coolpix 5000 (it still does what I need) and a Ricoh GR1s (35mm!) am just looking for the 'next' digital camera. Has to be 'compact'. Has to be 'wide'. LX-3 is nearly it but I'm not sure. The Pen ditto.....
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So true. And a bit of nice new kit has never failed to stimulate me when I get a bit stale, for no entirely photographically logical reason.
The cameras we have today are pretty much all throw-backs - just digital sensors where film used to be. There now seems to be a real opportunity for new thinking, though I expect cameras will still look and handle much as they have always done. Past attempts to change it, eg Rollei 2000, never caught on.
I think this is probably because it's not a bad way of doing things, and while snappers tend to prefer an LCD for viewing even when they have a viewfinder, an eye-level viewfinder is much better for serious shooting. I don't think that's just habit or prejudice, but I wish I didn't get nose grease over the LCD all the time. Is that just because the Japanese have flat noses?